Has Your Reading Taste Changed Over Time?

I don’t know about you, but the list of books I’ve bought but haven’t read yet is extensive. About twenty of them are print books that stare at me from my shelves, begging to be picked up every time I look at them. But the amount on my e-reader is staggering! I’ve purchased many over time when I came across deals to get them at a very low cost (or free!), and they have sat on that digital shelf for several years. As the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

In an attempt to reduce this list, I recently set a goal for myself to complete a set amount of these books before even considering buying any more. As I’ve been working toward this pursuit, I’ve read some books that pleasantly surprised me. But others were mediocre at best, and several I couldn’t even finish.

Imagine my disappointment when I picked up books I thought I would like but didn’t. Especially in instances when I’d enjoyed books by that author before. I wondered if that particular book just wasn’t as good as their other writing. Or maybe, was it me? Has my reading taste changed?

After thinking it over for a while, I came to realize that yes, my reading taste has changed over the years. The books I used to devour five, ten, or twenty years ago aren’t what I’m looking for now. The worlds I wanted to escape into then are different than those I want to explore now. And my expectations in writing style and quality have shifted as I’ve spent more time reading and reviewing books.

Upon coming to this realization, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. There may still be a large number of books that I’ve bought but haven’t yet read, but I’m working through them. And now I don’t feel obligated to finish them. Which is a remarkably freeing feeling, and I’m thrilled to have discovered it!

So, I’m curious. Has your reading taste changed over time? If so, how do you feel about it?

15 thoughts on “Has Your Reading Taste Changed Over Time?”

Great post!
My reading has definitely changed, but I’m not sure if I can point out how exactly. I’m definitely reading more sci-fi and romance books compared to couple of years back. But I’m also diving more into heavy fantasy books! So I guess my tastes have more expanded!

Yes! I’ve noticed recently that a lot of books I’d been drooling over years ago no longer hold that same spark. I’ve donated and gifted quite a few of my backlist titles this year (and quickly filled the holes with all the new books I’ve been drooling over).

I don’t know if my tastes have changed but I have certainly changed and that colors what I read and what I expect from it. I couldn’t deal with an author like David Eddings now, whereas I ate him up in highschool. And while I enjoyed Dickens in college, now, I simply can’t get enough of the man’s writings.

Several years ago I wrote a post about how I felt ashamed that when I was 18 I liked a book called A Girl’s Guide to Vampires by Katie MacAlister. Due to my shame, I got rid of the book. But after some realization (not sure what happened), I decided I can like and read what I want and bought every book in the series that wasn’t available at my library. Oh, my. The series gets worse and worse and worse. The heroines more dependent, more grating; the heroes more aggressive and forceful. But now I own them. And I think that if I read a chapter and decide they are not for me, I am okay with that. E-book are less expensive and I supported a female author, so that’s okay by me.

Haha at least something good came out of that experience! I’m all for supporting female authors. I do feel better about not enjoying/not finishing an e-book than a print version, since it means I generally spent less on it.

I’m still following this monthly reading goal of reading the oldest and newest books I own. It really helps with that anxiety of getting behind but wanting to read fresh works. Plus, I’ve moved through my “books owned” pile rather quickly, and am happy about that. If I’m not feeling a book, I put it in the Free Little Library and am happy I gave it a shot.

I have definitely experienced this phenom myself! 🙂 I went through a 10 year reader’s rut where I could *gather!* books to read but I honestly couldn’t hold a focus inside them! Then, a new library opened up locally and I slowly but surely started to borrow books (from such a multi-diverse array of genres it was always a unique pick-up day for me!) and actually *read them!* I never actually started to move into my own shelves and my personal library (a bit of a quirk?) but five years later I started Jorie Loves A Story! (smiles)

I’ve tried re-reading stories such as one of my favourites from high school which was “The Shell Seekers” a multi-POV novel which I quite literally devoured. When I read it again in my mid to late twenties I couldn’t sort out what I previously liked about and decided to hold onto those memories rather than to continue to re-visit with it again. I think its a bit of a combination of things – how we process stories is such an intrapersonal experience – it is half co-dependent on our moods, our emotional reactions to the context of the stories and if we can even make a connection to the plot and the character’s journey. Secondly, we all have a lot of growth happening in our everyday lives day to day, year to year – which is hinting towards what you said – each cycle of our readerly lives is going to ‘shift’ us in different directions. We have to accept that and simply ride the waves.

Likewise, I have found being a book blogger has deepened my appreciation for reading and has allowed me to seek out a hearty array of Indie Pub and Indie Authors moreso than in the past as I had clipped wings in those regards due to limited visibility before I blogged and became involved with the book blogosphere and #bookTwitter, too! 🙂

As our literary worlds expand and bend into new horizons, we have to remember — like in life, it is the journey we undertake into the stories that is more important than our final destinations….